More than a dozen U.S. Olympians from the 2000 Sydney
Games — including Puyallup double-gold medalist Megan Quann
— will compete in the U.S. Open in Federal Way tomorrow through
Saturday at the King County Aquatic Center.

Joining Quann are gold medalists Lenny Krayzelburg,
Tom Malchow, Brooke Bennett and Misty Hyman. The Americans will face
more than national competition, though, as the event also features
Olympic champion Yana Klochkova from Ukraine, Japanese Olympians Sachiko
Yamada and Masami Tanaka and Jamaican Olympian Janelle Atkinson.

Quann will compete tomorrow in the 100-meter breaststroke,
her gold-medal event in Sydney (she also won gold on the 400-meter
relay team) and her event on the national team. She won the event
at the summer nationals in August in College Park, Md. Tara Kirk,
of Bremerton, who will also compete in the U.S. Open, was third at
nationals.

Krayzelburg, 27, was a triple gold medalist in Sydney,
and is considered the best backstroker in the world. Born in the Ukraine,
he moved to the United States in 1989 and became a U.S. citizen in
1995. He holds the world records for the 100- and 200-meter backstroke.

He has been training in Irvine, Calif., for the 2004
Athens Olympics, where he hopes to contend for gold again.

"I have become a student of the sport,"
he said yesterday. "My training now is at race pace. You want
to train at the speed you want to race in, to find certain comfort
levels."

This will be his first meet since shoulder surgery
five months ago, and it has been about eight months since he raced.

"The Open will be great to just be racing again,
and to see where I am," he said.

Asked if he had thought of retiring from the sport,
Krayzelburg admitted it had "crossed my mind."

"But deep in my heart, I believe if I'm healthy,
if I can be as healthy as before, there is no question that I could
win a gold medal next year at the Olympics. Why retire if you think
you can still win a gold medal? There's no reason to walk away from
that."

For this meet, Krayzelburg will be aiming "just
to gradually drop times. Ultimately that is our goal: we just want
to get better."

Preliminaries begin at 9 a.m. all three days, with
finals at 6 p.m. each day. Tickets are $25 for all sessions, and a
one-day pass is $10. For individual sessions, prelims are $5 and finals
are $7. Tickets may be purchased at the door.